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No Issue With Jeffrey Lurie Going into the Eagles Hall of Fame, Though the Timing Could Certainly Be Better
Published:
Jeffrey Lurie will be inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame on Monday night, as the Jalen Hurts-less Birds face the Cowboys at home as a 4.5 point underdog.
He released this statement:
First of all, the “Lurie inducted himself” accusation is kind of annoying. If the owner loved himself, and was arrogant, and had the power to tell the selection committee what to do, wouldn’t he have inducted himself years ago?
A rhetorical question to ponder.
But we know Jeffrey Lurie to be a decent human being, thoughtful, and with “emotional intelligence.” I highly doubt there ever existed a scenario where he went to Jaws or Don Smolenski or Bob Lange and said “now you will induct me into the Eagles Hall of Fame, or else.” He just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to do that, although it is certainly funny to think about the owner of a team going into the team’s Hall of Fame. It would be like Gustavo Fring being inducted into the Los Pollos Hermanos Hall of Fame.
Of course, the timing is not great. The Eagles are 2-4 and the NFL and NFLPA are jointly investigating whether or not Hurts’ blood clot issue was handled properly.* The Birds might be down at halftime, when the ceremony takes place. Surely they are not going to booooooooo Lurie, but you never know. The Sixers were down at halftime in the season opener and the fans booooooooed the halftime performer, who was doing some kind of light up drone show-looking thing.
Bottom line is that Lurie deserves go to into the HOF, regardless of current circumstances. He’s the best owner the Eagles have ever had. He might be the best owner in Philadelphia sports history, depending on how you feel about Ed Snider. Maybe there’s an argument for passing the Birds off to his son, Julian, and then going into the Hall AFTER he cedes control of the organ-eye-zation, but that feels like a minor optics thing.
*for what it’s worth, the inductee usually speaks.. we’ll see if Lurie does that, and if he talks about the Jalen issue
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com